Craig McInnes: B.C. health research scandal still shrouded in secrecy

Craig McInnes, Vancouver Sun columnist12.14.2012

In the weeks since the personal health records case came to light, provincial Health Minister Margaret MacDiarmid has steadfastly refused to give any details of the investigation, name names or say what anyone is alleged to have done.

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As one of Dr. Margaret MacDiarmid’s first acts as minister of health, she confirmed a shocking piece of news broken in September by The Vancouver Sun.

Jonathan Fowlie, legislative bureau chief, reported that in an unprecedented case, seven employees involved in drug research had been suspended in an investigation into the improper use of personal data. MacDiarmid announced on Sept. 6 that four of them had been fired. She made it clear that this was a serious matter and her ministry was moving swiftly to clean it up.

“What we believe has happened is individuals have gone outside the rules around taking data and using data with respect to research and use of drugs,” she said. “We believe some of the legislation has not been followed.”

In other words, they broke the rules and the law. Personal health records were at risk. Serious stuff indeed.

In the ensuing weeks, the rest of the employees who had been suspended without pay were subsequently fired. Yet MacDiarmid has steadfastly refused to give any details of the investigation, name names or say what anyone is alleged to have done.

As of Friday, the line from the government continued to be that “out of respect for each individual’s right to privacy” no information will be released on employees who were fired or suspended.

As for when any more information will be released about what harm was done that justified the rare firings or the suspension of drug research, the ministry says: “This has been a very complex investigation into a serious matter and not one that can be rushed.”

It’s curious that the minister is able to argue that the investigation can’t be rushed when asked for an accounting of the ministry’s actions, yet she is confident enough in what they know so far to take the drastic action of firing long-term civil servants and derailing valuable drug research.

Those firings have been devastating for the people involved and what some of them have disclosed so far raises serious questions about what is really going on.

All of their identities are now known, as I’m certain the minister knew they would be. Their colleagues knew immediately who they were and what was going on. The health research community, the forum in which their reputations matter most, is equally small.

Reporters who started asking around were soon able to piece together all of their names and positions.

Earlier this month, Ron Mattson became the second former longtime employee to sue for wrongful dismissal. In a statement prepared for a press conference in Victoria, he described what he faces now after 28 years as a public servant.

If, as the ministry alleges, Mattson and the others who have been fired have been engaged in serious malfeasance and threatening the privacy of British Columbians who entrust their personal health information to the government, it would be reasonable to see them as getting their just desserts.

But like the others who have spoken out, Mattson says he remains mystified as to the real reason he has been axed.

Mattson released the letter from Graham Whitmarsh, the deputy minister of health, informing him that he was being fired. The only specific cause given was that on June 28, 2012, he arranged for an unauthorized contractor to receive a disc containing confidential data.

The really curious thing about that allegation is that three weeks earlier, Mattson had been informed that as part of the investigation that was underway, “the Ministry of Health is revoking your access to ministry data and any signing authority for any invoices, expenses or contract approvals.”

Last week, the unauthorized contractor in question, Bill Warburton, a health economist who had just been hired by the University of Victoria to oversee an Alzheimers drug research project, issued a statement saying he was in the process of applying for authorization to get such data but had never received it.

This is clearly a complicated tale and I don’t pretend to understand much of what’s going on in the ministry.

But there is nothing in what we have seen so far that would justify the drastic action that has been taken. Reputations have been tarred. Careers are being ruined. Crucial research has been disrupted.

It’s too late and too convenient as a means of ducking scrutiny to now claim that respect for privacy and due process prevent a public airing of the issues involved in this messy affair.

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